Microsoft Innovates with Project Natal

E3 2009 has been going on this week. It's one of the leading video game conventions and it's where many of the big names in the industry announce their newest pet projects. Each year, gamers look to E3 to get a sense of the future of the industry. This year, we weren't disappointed.

The news that has been funneling out of E3 has created quite a buzz, but one of the most talked about demos was something from Microsoft called Project Natal. Billed as a "controller-free system" or, alternatively, "the system where you are the controller," it has the potential to revolutionize gaming as we know it.

Project Natal is technology that works with the Xbox 360. The technology includes a 3-D motion sensing camera, voice recognition, face recognition and the ability to read facial expressions. Imagine a Wii-like game that has no controller, but can read the movements of your entire body, including your relationship to the screen.

The most impressive demo of the Project Natal system came in the form of a virtual boy named Milo. Milo recognizes people and can judge their emotions based on their facial expressions. Honestly, if I hadn't seen a demo a couple of years ago of the type of software that makes this possible, I'd have been quite the skeptic. You interact with Milo just as you would with a person in front of you. You can hand him objects (which are scanned in by Natal and brought into the virtual world), and "accept" objects from him (allowing for the imagination necessary to pretend to wear fake goggles or use other virtual objects). You can have conversations with him. It's all very creepy, honestly.

Time will tell if Project Natal lives up to the hype, but early reports seem to be positive.

Read More

• A Hands-on Review of the Project Natal Demo from Wired.com
• Five Things I Want to Know about Project Natal from PC World